Regional Partnerships in
East Asia
SILVIA MENEGAZZI, PHD
LUISS GUIDO CARLI UNIVERSITY
PRESENTATION PREPARED FOR THE WORKSHOP:
“BEYOND SOVEREIGNTY:
ISSUES OF COOPERATION IN THE CHINA SEAS”
UNIVERSITY OF MACERATA
APRIL 14, 2015
East Asia 1/2
East Asia 2/2
Regional Integration
in East Asia
Maritime Cooperation in East Asia:
an overview
 Maritime cooperation in East Asia: a multi-faceted issue
 Geopolitics
 Economic development
 Identity
Towards an Asian Cauldron?
 “Europe
is a landscape; East Asia a
seascape. Therein lies a crucial difference
between the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries. Because of the way that
geography illuminates and sets priorities,
the physical contours of East Asia argue for
a naval century.” (Kaplan, 2015)
Beyond Sovereignty?
Maritime Power: Your rules or mines?
China’s Maritime Strategy: the debate
 A MAINSTREAM VIEW, which predicts that China’s
growing naval power will, sooner or later, destabilize
the East Asian region in the future;
 A SECOND VIEW, which instead, contends that China
has limited goals in the region (Li, 2010)
Main issues at stake: conflicts over EEZ
 The March 2001 confrontation between the US Navy Survey
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vessel Bowditch and the Chinese free gate in China’s EEZ;
The April 2001 collision between a US EP3 surveillance plane
and a Chinese jet fighter over China’s EEZ;
The December Japanese 2001Coast Guard pursuit of and firing
at North Korea spy vessel in its and China’s EEZ;
The 2009 Impeccable incident: in March 2009 in the South
China Sea, five Chinese vessels surrounded the unarmed USNS
Impeccable, a United States (‘US’) Navy ocean surveillance
vessel, and ordered it to leave the area. The Impeccable had been
conducting routine seabed mapping and tracking submarines
about seventy-five nautical miles (nm) south of China’s Hainan
Island.
Costal states vs. Maritime states ?
The puzzle concerning military activities in
EEZ in Asia
 The legal question: when, if ever, States may conduct military activities in the
EEZ?
 The law: UNCLOS is a comprehensive treaty that creates a legal regime governing
the peaceful use of the ocean and its resources. UNCLOS provides guidance on
various maritime matters such as pollution, environmental protection, and
resources rights;
“It applies to the coastal states as well as the whole
international society to advance with times regarding
the norms and principles of international relations.
The contemporary international system dominated by
the West is facing fundamental challenges, while the
non-West countries need to make their contribution to
the aspects of international law, international
consensus and the mainstream values”
Yang Jiemian, SIIS
Maritime Cooperation in East Asia
AMF
• ASEAN Maritime Forum
• Multi-dimensional forum to foster ASEAN maritime cooperation through
dialogues, consultations policy-oriented studies and joint activities
EAMF
• Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum
• First Track 1.5 mechanism on maritime issues with participation of ASEAN
member states and major nations in the wider East Asia region
AMOSC
• Asia Maritime Organization for Security and Cooperation
• central goal would be to prevent and manage existing maritime disputes
between countries by enhancing domain awareness, improving capacitybuilding, and enacting confidence-building measures
The Belt and Road Initiative (OBOR)
“It is aimed at promoting orderly and free flow of
economic factors, highly efficient allocation of
resources and deep integration of markets;
encouraging the countries along the Belt and Road to
achieve economic policy coordination and carry
out broader and more in-depth regional cooperation
of higher standards; and jointly creating an open,
inclusive and balanced regional economic
cooperation architecture that benefits all.”
Xi Jinping, Baoao Forum, March 2015
OBOR: Global reactions
UNITED NATIONS:
Jan Eliasson, deputy secretary-general of the United
Nations (April 9, 2014):
"We live in the world clearly so interdependent that if things go right in
one part of the world, it helps the other part of the world. If things go
wrong in one part of the world, it hurts others." He said, "So in the
days of interdependence, we should act also in the spirit of
interdependence.”
"There is a need to increase investment in infrastructure, not least in
developing countries."
OBOR: Regional reactions
MYANMAR (Myanmar's presidential spokesman U Ye Htut):
-the projects provide a good opportunity for the development of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN);
SRI LANKA (Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, executive director of the Lakshman
Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies)
-it promotes mutually beneficial cooperation between countries along the ancient
sea route and share among them a vast market provided by China's economic
expansion;
-Especially for Sri Lanka, which is in the post-war reconstruction, it needs to
develop rapidly by being incorporated in a regional economic system;
AUSTRALIA (Merriden Varrall, Lowy Institute, Australia)
"This 'Belt and Road' is not the only part of that but an extension. It's that
heightened awareness of how important that is. It reflects the growing
significance that these peripheral countries have for China's national
development"
Conclusion
 China is no longer an outsider in East Asian
maritime cooperation;
 China is no longer keeping a low-profile in the East
Asian region (21st century maritime silk road);
 China’s regional identity
 Beyond Western-led explanations in terms of dispute
settlements in the China’s seas and cooperation
activities
Thank you for the attention!
smenegazzi@luiss.it